The Beginning of the Year retreat started on Thursday and ended today, Sunday afternoon. There were about 300 brothers and sisters there. And this retreat was only for the Responsibles, Co-Responsibles, Catechists, and Ministers of the Word. As I said, there is good news!!! :-)
There are three new Redemptoris Mater Seminaries being opened up. One of them is in the United States; therefore, that would make a total of 9 Redemptoris Mater Seminaries in the U.S. The other two are in Estonia and in France near Spain.
The other good news is that 100 priests in the United States wants the Neocatechumenal Way in their parish and 300 more have expressed an interest in the Way. The two by two evangelization in July brought much fruit. Many of the priests were very impressed with the family and youths going out to evangelize that 100 priests have approached the Head Catechist of the U.S. and would like to start the NCW in their parish. Many priests in the U.S. complained that some of the churches are closing due to the low number of people attending the Church. In many of the churches, one would see older people and rarely any youth? One U.S. priest even complained that he is being overrun by Muslims. In the NCW, they saw not only old people, but many young people including the teenage youth. And the youth along with the families have a zeal to spread the Gospels. This impressed many priests and bishops in the United States. There were 60 families from Guam who participated in the World Family Day in Philadelphia. Therefore, the Way and the RM seminaries are increasing.
Finally, the retreat with the Jewish people turned out to be a success that the Jewish Rabbis asked to have a retreat with the Catholics every year. So, there will be a retreat for Rabbis after the retreat of Bishops every year. This marks a historical event in the history of the Catholic Church. The Chosen People of God together with His Church.
The retreat ended with the Eucharist and the calling. There were many girls who stood up to either join the convent or become itinerants. There were also some young boys who stood up to become priests and itinerants.
I was very touched watching the video of Jews and Catholics. Having them endorse the Neocatechumenal Way and its fruits were amazing. You can truly see how they were touched by the convivence.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE IT!
Yeah, convivences with the Jews are just wonderful for all Christians, because to learn from each other and teach each other. We have the same God and same faith in God. We should also be familiar with Jewish rabbis' teaching about God, because it is exactly the same that the magisterium of faith teaches to all Catholics! It is not the same by accident but it is the same by the reason that God is One (Shema Israel).
DeleteMy favorite is Rabbi Harold Kushner, who has many wonderful quotes. Read some of it below:
A prophet is not a man who tells the future; he is a man who tells the truth.
But at the end, if we are brave enough to love, if we are strong enough to forgive, if we are generous enough to rejoice in another's happiness, and if we are wise enough to know that there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know, we can reenter paradise.
Given the unfairness that strikes so many people in life, I would rather believe in a God of limited power and unlimited love and justice, rather than the other way around.
http://www.azquotes.com/author/18027-Harold_S_Kushner
"We have the same God and same faith in God. We should also be familiar with Jewish rabbis' teaching about God, because it is exactly the same that the magisterium of faith teaches to all Catholics!"
DeleteThis is plain heresy. We certainly do not have the same faith in God, as our faith in God is through Jesus Christ. And the Jewish rabbis' teaching about God is not exactly the same that the magisterium (of faith?) teaches to all Catholics!
Who on earth are you, and who has told you these things? You are so wrong, it is not funny. You need to read about Alphonse Ratisbonne, Edith Stein or read what St Maximilian Kolbe had to say. This is rather incredible, and if you are being taught this by the NCW then that is more reason for us to be wary. Good grief.
Dear Anonymous at 2:05 pm,
DeleteActually, you are preaching heresy. The God of Abraham is the same God Jesus was praying to. Jesus was a Jew who prayed to the God of Abraham. Christianity came from Judaism. Also, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1096 Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy. A better knowledge of the Jewish people's faith and religious life as professed and lived even now can help our better understanding of certain aspects of Christian liturgy. For both Jews and Christians Sacred Scripture is an essential part of their respective liturgies: in the proclamation of the Word of God, the response to this word, prayer of praise and intercession for the living and the dead, invocation of God's mercy. In its characteristic structure the Liturgy of the Word originates in Jewish prayer. The Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical texts and formularies, as well as those of our most venerable prayers, including the Lord's Prayer, have parallels in Jewish prayer. The Eucharistic Prayers also draw their inspiration from the Jewish tradition. The relationship between Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy, but also their differences in content, are particularly evident in the great feasts of the liturgical year, such as Passover. Christians and Jews both celebrate the Passover. For Jews, it is the Passover of history, tending toward the future; for Christians, it is the Passover fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Christ, though always in expectation of its definitive consummation.
Dear Diana, no you are wrong, and the quote from the catechism is irrelevant to the objection raised in the previous comment. Your quote from the catechim refers to parallels between Jewish and Christian liturgy. This is quite different from the claim that we have the same faith as the Jews.
DeleteThat's just obvious. What is so hard about realising the differences in our religious views? God is not only "One", but also "Three in One". This is absolutely fundamental to Christianity and is not negotiable. If we are to say that wqe believe in the same God and have the same faith as the Jews, we are negating and denying the Trinity? Is that what you want to do?
Find me something in the CCC that says we have the same faith in God as the Jews. Otherwise you should recant your previous comment and profess the Christian faith.
Nor is the Jewish teaching authority in anyway remotely associated with the magisterium of the Church. You need to correct your wayward brothers on this - or is this what you also believe? Is this what the NCW teaches you?
Why is this difficult for you Diana?
DeletePerhaps an analogy can be useful. Let us say that two people are travelling along the same road, coming from the same origin, and travelling to visit the same King. They meet a man at a fork in the road, who identifies himself as an envoy of the King they are travelling to meet. "Turn this way and follow me, and I will take you to him" he says. One immediately turns and follows the man, the other stops and says "But that road leads in a different direction to the one we have been following. I shall continue along this other path".
Now, both came from the same origin, and both profess the same goal, but only one listens to the envoy and only one can arrive at the destination.
Jesus Christ is the Way. There is no other way to come to the Father, The Jews are mistaken about their faith. The Jewish people of the old testament could be considered "proto-Christians" as they had not yet arrived at that decisive point, but were in anticipation of it. The promises made to them were that they would be led to the Father by the one whom the Father sent. When he came, some rejected him. Today, those that remain obstinately apart from Jesus are on a different road to us.
This is the Truth. Jesus is the Truth. Let anyone who has ears, hear and understand.
Enough of this heresy.
Dear Anonymous October 19, 2015 at 2:05 PM, I do not know who you are either. But I see, based on what Diana says, that you are not a person of knowledge about your faith. You might have learned this or that in regular Catholic education classes. But you also should see the big picture and the deep meaning of your faith. At the deepest level is the great secret that God is One, Shema Israel! There is no other God, He is the best. Glory!
DeleteThis gives a different light to Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Yahweh. I don't know about you, but He is my Savior. Yahweh is the only true God, He created even you with your thoughts that you may rebel against him. Never forget that without him and without the capacities he gave you, you would not be able to rebel against him and criticize him at all! He gave you everything.
So rather than rebelling, it is much better to be obedient and accept God's will for you. This is what the Jewish rabbis teach. I challenge you, if you are such an expert of faith, that you just show me one single thing that is different in the teaching of the Jewish rabbis from what the magisterium of faith is teaching for all Catholics. I warn you, you won't find anything.
You won't find anything in the gospels that cannot be reconciled with the books of Moses and the teaching of the rabbis. Why? Very simple. Both are the Word of the same God, creator of the universe, the Holy One of Israel, Yahweh Sabaoth!
Dear Anonymous at 6:55 and 7:12 pm,
DeleteThe problem with your analogy is that you believe that there are two gods and that one of those gods is a false one. There is only one God. And that one God revealed His name to the Jewish people. He told Moses that His name is "I AM". Yes, you believe that Jesus is God. But what about "I AM" or "Yawheh" ? Who is God of Abraham? Who is the God whom Jesus called His Father? That is the God whom all Jews have faith in. Essentially, you are saying that ONLY Jesus is God and the God whom Christ and the Jewish people pray to is a false God. That is what is wrong with your analogy.
You believe in ONLY Jesus. The NCW believe in the Holy Trinity.......that there are three persons in one God. So yes, Jesus is God, but so is the Father (whom Christ prayed to and whom the Jewish people believe in) and so is the Holy Spirit.
The Jews deny the Holy Trinity because they do not see Jesus as God. But you also deny the Holy Trinity when you deny God the Father whom the Jews believe in. So how are you different from them?
"I challenge you, if you are such an expert of faith, that you just show me one single thing that is different in the teaching of the Jewish rabbis from what the magisterium of faith is teaching for all Catholics. I warn you, you won't find anything. "
DeleteAre you serious? How about this one. "Jesus is the second person of the Trinity"
Are you going to say that the Jewish Rabbis teach this? Because certainly the Magisterium of the Church does.
I think it is delusional to say what you say. I can't imagine why it is so important for you to worship and adore the Jewish faith.
"At the deepest level is the great secret that God is One, Shema Israel! There is no other God, He is the best. Glory!"
Let me ask you, then. Who is Jesus? Is he not God? Is God not a Trinity of Persons, as well as being One?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the true revelation of God? The Jewish people do not.
(Some Jewish people do not even believe in God at all - they are cultural Jews only and sometimes identify themselves as atheist. Can there be an atheistic Christian?).
The Jewish people have an incomplete revelation of the Father. And they are therefore in error about many things. There is no way that a Christian can seriously claim that Jewish and Christian faiths are compatible, let alone identical.
Prior to Christ, prior to the full revelation given through Christ, God's action was attended on and with the Jewish people. He accompanied and developed them, revealing more and more about himself. This was to bring them to the state where they would accept Him personally in Jesus Christ.
And many Jewish people became Christian didn't they? The Apostles for example, and thousands and thousands of others. Why? Why should they have chosen to follow Christ if it were unnecessary - if the Jewish faith was the same (or superior, as you imply) to the faith in Jesus Christ.
I'm sorry, but I think this is quite ridiculous. Where do these notions come from? Do you ask yourself what the motivation is of people who tell you this stuff, or do you just lap it up?
By the way, thanks for the ad hominen at the start and the strawman at the end (I didn't ever claim that the books of Moses couldn't be reconciled with the Gospels).
Here’s another strawman: “Yahweh is the only true God, He created even you with your thoughts that you may rebel against him. Never forget that without him and without the capacities he gave you, you would not be able to rebel against him and criticize him at all! He gave you everything.”
Perhaps you can point out where I rebelled and criticised Yahweh? I didn’t, did I?
Also, given what you have already written, in order for me to accept your statement that “Yahweh is the only true God”, you will need to confirm that you believe Yahweh to be a Trinity of persons.
Dear Diana at 11.06.
DeleteAre you going to correct your errant brother/sister on these last comments? Surely you do no believe what he/she has written too? Or do you?
Firstly, your initial response was inadequate. You quoted a paragraph of the CCC that deals with the origins of liturgical praxis and the parallels between Ancient Jewish and Christian liturgical action.
That is not sufficient. The assertion made was that we have the same God and the same faith as the Jews. That is not correct. Our faith is in Jesus Christ. The Jews do not accept Jesus Christ. That is not to say that they are bad. But simply, that they believe something different to Christians. This is elementary, and you ought to correct that now, not defend it.
Secondly, you say "The problem with your analogy is that you believe that there are two gods".
No, I do not. This also is a strawman.
I would say instead that there are two (or more) understandings of God. One is complete, correct and entire (the Catholic Church through Jesus Christ) and one is incomplete and partially in error.
"You believe in ONLY Jesus"
What? Where do you get this from? I am arguing for the Trinity Diana, against someone who claims that belief in ONLY the Father is sufficient. And you dare to accuse me? Well, go ahead. It won't affect me at all, but I do feel sorry for you and the other commenter.
Look, what did Jesus Christ himself say about this?
"19 They asked him, 'Where is your Father then?' Jesus answered: You do not know me, nor do you know my Father; if you did know me, you would know my Father as well." (John 8:19)
"31 To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples;
32 you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
33 They answered, 'We are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, "You will be set free?" '
34 Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave.
35 Now a slave has no permanent standing in the household, but a son belongs to it for ever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.
37 I know that you are descended from Abraham; but you want to kill me because my word finds no place in you." (John 8:31-37)
"54 Jesus answered: If I were to seek my own glory my glory would be worth nothing; in fact, my glory is conferred by the Father, by the one of whom you say, 'He is our God,'
55 although you do not know him. But I know him, and if I were to say, 'I do not know him,' I should be a liar, as you yourselves are. But I do know him, and I keep his word.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad.
57 The Jews then said, 'You are not fifty yet, and you have seen Abraham!'
58 Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, before Abraham ever was, I am." (John 8:54-58)
Notice the "I AM", Diana? This is Jesus Christ making this claim - to be "I AM".
There are at least 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:
Delete1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”
2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being, because he is being.
3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.
4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.
5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on God's decision to keep it in being.
6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies, is, compared to God, as nothing.
7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.
8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.
9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don't originate from the counsel of his own will.
10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe.
Dear Anonymous at 11:06 am,
DeleteYou stated: "The assertion made was that we have the same God and the same faith as the Jews. That is not correct. Our faith is in Jesus Christ.........But simply, that they believe something different to Christians."
You say that your faith is in Jesus, the Son of God. Well, the Jews faith is in God the Father. And if you say that the Jews have a different faith, then you are denying God the Father and therefore, also denying the Holy Trinity. What you do not understand is that the Jews and the Christians worship the same God and therefore have faith in the same God.
The DIFFERENCE is that the Jews do not know God's NATURE. God has a nature. His nature is the Holy Trinity. The God of the Christians and the God of the Jews are the same. The problem is not WHO the Jews worship. The problem is their ignorance of who God is.
So, when you say that the Jews believe in something different, you are essentially denying God the Father and also denying the Holy Trinity.
Dear Anonymous October 20, 2015 at 11:53 AM, have you ever read the Bible, all of it? Not only picking randomly here or there, serving preconception, but the whole thing as one? Then you would know that Jesus had never claimed to be the I AM the way Yahweh claimed it when he talked to Moses at the burning bush. Jesus distinguishes himself from God the Father because he is the Son. Not the same.
DeleteA man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. (Mark 10:17).
Jesus scolded the rich man because the rich man called him good and only God is good alone. Jesus came to teach about Father Yahweh, just like the rabbis. He was called rabbi, or teacher, by the Jewish people who loved him. Te taught them about the Holy One of Israel. He said he and Yahweh were one, because he was obedient to Yahweh in everything. That made him one with the Father.
This is what the rabbis teach at any age: be obedient to Yahweh. It does not matter it was yesterday or it is today or will be tomorrow. Always the same. That is why the teaching of the rabbis and the teaching of Jesus is exactly the same thing that you also read in the magisterium of faith for Catholic believers. Have you ever opened and read it through?
Dear Diana. Wow.
Delete"And if you say that the Jews have a different faith, then you are denying God the Father and therefore, also denying the Holy Trinity"
Well, if you say that the Jews have the same faith, you are denying the Son, the Trinity and the Incarnation.
Logically speaking, God cannot be both a Trinity and also not a Trinity at the same time. In addition, Jesus cannot be both God in flesh (second person of the Trinity) and also not God in flesh.
If the Jews worship a non-Trinitarian God, then it is not the same God that I worship. If the Jews worship a God that does not include Our Lord Jesus Christ, then it is not the same God I worship. Have you ever read the Creed? These are things that we must believe, and it is based on the Trinity. It is absolute nonsense to say that the Jews have the same faith as professed in the Creed.
This:
"The DIFFERENCE is that the Jews do not know God's NATURE. God has a nature. His nature is the Holy Trinity. The God of the Christians and the God of the Jews are the same. The problem is not WHO the Jews worship. The problem is their ignorance of who God is. "
Do you truly believe this makes any sense? So you want to separate the "who" of God from his "nature", do you? Good luck with that. That's what you call heresy, but go for it.
I mean, look at your last two sentences:
1. The problem is not WHO the Jews worship.
2. The problem is their ignorance of WHO God is.
Just Wow.
Dear Anon at 6.30pm.
Delete"Jesus distinguishes himself from God the Father because he is the Son. Not the same"
Does "One in being with the Father" mean anything to you?
What about "eternally begotten of the Father"?
Are you quoting Mark 10:17 to suggest that Jesus is not God? Please be clear about that, and while you're at it, please tell us where you were taught that
"He said he and Yahweh were one, because he was obedient to Yahweh in everything. That made him one with the Father. "
So, he is One with the Father because he was obedient, huh? Maybe you should read John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God."
What is this "magisterium of faith for Catholic believers" that you keep on about. Do you mean the Catechism? Do you mean the teaching of the Church Fathers and the saints, the doctors of the Church, the pope's the councils etc?
What exactly do you mean?
Dear Anonymous at 9:18 pm,
DeleteAnonymous 6:30 pm, is simply saying that although the Son and the Father are one God, they are also distinct from each other. The Son is the second person in the Trinity with two natures - a human and divine nature. God the Father is the first person in the Trinity and only has a divine nature. The Father does not have a human nature, which makes Him distinct from the Son. Only the Son is eternally begotten. The Father and Holy Spirit are not begotten.
What makes Jesus one with the Father is the fact that He is God and one with God, but also obedient to the Father. If Christ's human nature was disobedient, He would not be one with God. According to the Catechism:
CCC 539 ............Christ reveals himself as God's Servant, totally obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil's conqueror: he "binds the strong man" to take back his plunder. Jesus' victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father.
CCC 612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in the garden at Gethsemani, making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . ." Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death. Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life", the "Living One". By accepting in his human will that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree."
Dear Anonymous at 9:13 pm,
DeleteA Christian who says that the Jews worship a different god is a person who is denying the Holy Trinity. Why? Because the Christian is supposed to be the enlightened one in that God has revealed Himself to the Christian as the Holy Trinity. In other words, the Christian is supposed to recognize God the Father, which is the God whom the Jews worship. The Christian is not supposed to call God the Father a different God just because the people who worship Him does not know His true nature. The fact that the Jews do not know God's nature does not change who God is.
You stated: " In addition, Jesus cannot be both God in flesh (second person of the Trinity) and also not God in flesh"
This shows that you are like the Jews who know nothing about God and His nature. Why do you limit God's power and according to your human logic? Do you not know that the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. He is true man and true God. Because Jesus has two natures - human and divine, this means that He is BOTH truly man in the flesh and truly God, the divine incarnated in the flesh.
The problem is not WHO the Jews worship......because they worship God the Father who is the same God Christians also worship.
The problem is their ignorance of WHO God is.....because they do not understand that God is three persons in one. Nevertheless, their ignorance does not change who God is. Therefore, who the Jews worship is still God the Father....the same God whom Christ prayed to and the same God you as a Christian is supposed to recognize through your Christian revelation.
See, this is the problem in having dialogue with someone who has had their sense systematically dissolved by the Neocatechumenal Way. Follow this closely please:
Delete"Jesus cannot be both God in flesh (second person of the Trinity) and also not God in flesh"
This does not mean that Jesus can't be both human and divine, Diana. It is a logical formulation. That is to say, if Jesus is truly God in the flesh, then he cannot be not-God-in-the flesh.
It is the same as saying A cannot be not-A. Because it IS A. Do you understand?
You say that "He is BOTH truly man in the flesh and truly God, the divine incarnated in the flesh". Yes, exactly. And if someone were to say He is not God in the flesh, they would be wrong, yes?
So, the Jews say Jesus is not God in the flesh. They are wrong. If they are wrong, then by saying we share their faith, we are saying we also are wrong. I reject that.
The question really is – is it possible to worship God by rejecting Jesus? I think the answer is no.
Here’s another thought. You will surely agree that from time to time in the Old Testament, some Jews worshipped Baal, or Moloch or others. Were they not Jews at that time? Or were they worshipping the same God as we do by worshipping Baal or those others?
There is a massive difference in recognising the special election of the Jewish people in ancient times, of recognising the promises made to them, and even acknowledging that Christians share the spiritual heritage of the Jewish people – with saying that that means we worship the same God and share the same faith. Anon goes even further and says that what the Jewish rabbis teach is identical to the magisterium of the Church. These things are too far. For a Catholic, it is heresy to say this.
I am convinced that, if this is truly what the NCW teach and believe, then we have our proof that the NCW is truly not Catholic.
Dear Anonymous October 20, 2015 at 9:18 PM, the magisterium of faith is the supreme authority on Catholic teaching. You should familiarize yourself with the authentic teaching and don't follow half-baked understanding that you are prone to demonstrate.
DeleteJesus is the Son by obedience. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. (John 6:38) Is this clear for you? You only pick the quotes that you think supports your preconception. But they don't. It is a shame. Jesus is not a preconception, he is the obedient Son who follows the will of Yahweh his Father. You should read the whole of the Bible as one unit, the Word of almighty Yahweh the Father in heaven.
Jesus is demonstrating by his obedience how to become Christ, how to become savior of the world. You cannot save anybody by being disobedient and rebelling against the will of the Holy One of Israel who is the only true God. Jesus said what he said in Mark's gospel and it is true. If you want to be Christ, if you want to save people, you have to take off the mantle of disobedience, put on the shirt of obedience and submit yourself completely to the will of Yahweh. It was Jesus' way to become Christ. Do you know any other way?
Dear Anonymous at 12:27 am.
DeleteSee my response in the following weblink:
http://neocatechemunal.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-nature-of-god.html
"It was Jesus' way to become Christ"
DeleteMore heresy. Jesus becomes Christ? He took off the mantle of disobedience, did he?
Dear Anonymous at 10:45 am,
DeleteI see.......so now you are saying that Jesus was a sinner. Jesus never sin even when He took the form of man.